Day 14, Leg 14

Today was a relatively easy day, with only two very limp, unchallenging hills to speak of. I left my motel at 5:35 a m. and arrived at Goraebul Beach in Byeongok-ni (변곡리) around 1:15 p.m. after stopping for lunch. Stats:

Distance: about 24 km

Time: 390 minutes (about 3.7 kph)

Steps: about 36,014

Calories Burned: 4,907

Calories Consumed: 2,448 (deficit = 2,559)

Beautiful day for a walk. And the gods apparently heard my complaint about the terrain and gave me a break today: except for two very minor hills, the entire route today was both flat and 95% along the coast, with only a couple very minor divergences. I also got to see the sunrise this morning—directly, without photographing anything until the sun had fully risen. I could get used to such a view. 

I have a tendency to talk to myself when I'm walking along, and it can be embarrassing when someone suddenly pops into view and catches me doing it. But today, I encountered two old ladies who were also loudly talking to themselves, and they didn't give a damn who heard them. That was quite a show, both times it happened.

Not a single pharmacy in sight, despite my passing through the large port down of Hupo. I thought I was on the town's main drag at one point, so I was expecting to see more than seafood restaurants and dried-fish purveyors, but no, the gods felt they'd done enough by granting me flat ground; they saw no need to humor my wish for a place to buy a mask. I tried finding a mask at one GS25 convenience store (convenience stores sometimes also sell masks), but it didn't have any.

The big city of Pohang is only 60-some kilometers ahead of me. At the rate I'm going, that's about another three days' walking, and Pohang signals the beginning of the end of this trek. In rapid succession after Pohang, it's Gyeongju, Ulsan, and Busan. The geography-savvy among you may be wondering why I included Gyeongju. Because Gyeongju apparently has a tendril that reaches out to the sea, despite the city's being mostly inland. One seaside motel I'm scheduled to stay at has Gyeongju-si as part of its address. Go figure.

I'm starting to feel a bit silly carrying around 120 ibuprofen pills. I've popped pills only twice this whole trip this far, and both times, that was more of a hypochondriacal move than because I was in actual agony. And those pills were ones I'd kept inside my wallet for Saturday walks to Bundang, i.e., I haven't even started using the 120 tablets I'd brought with me. They remain untouched. I might have to pop some pills in celebration on the final day of the walk. Just kidding.

Plenty of scenery today; the works of Man abound, and this trip is basically a celebration of the works of Man. There was another awesome crab sculpture, so I have plenty of pictures of that. Lots of mural art along the way, and plenty of seaside villages. Never a lack of things to see.

I went a gigabyte over my 3GB limit for September, so my phone bill is going to be more expensive than usual. But now that it's October, I no longer have to keep seeing the overuse warning that was popping up several times a day in the latter part of September.

My attitude toward this trail may be mellowing in some ways. Those who've followed my blogs know that I was prepared to dislike this trail after I'd done my reconnoiter last December. My thinking has shifted somewhat, especially as certain preconceptions about the trail have been challenged by what I've experienced thus far. I can't say that the east-coast path will ever supplant the Four Rivers trail in my heart, but I can already say there are things about this trail that I will miss when I'm back in Seoul, doing my daily grind. The sea, of course, is one such thing. And sunrises. And yes, even certain aspects of human civilization. 

With today being the first day of the latter half of this trail, I can say that I'm far enough south that the local accent has become annoying again. I will never love the southern Korean accent. Sorry. It bothers me in a fingernails-on-chalkboard kind of way. The people are fine; I just encountered a friendly, informative convenience-store lady a few minutes ago, and we talked about my walk. But the accent is one I'll never get used to. The Japanese-like intonation and rhythm, the strange local expressions... I didn't like it when I lived in Daegu during the 2013-14 school year, and I don't like it now. Again, sorry. I'm a Seoul man. 

Also, while there's still plenty of barbed wire and military emplacements along the coast, the overall ambience this far south feels a bit more relaxed. As for masks... some folks are masked, but as was true up north, a startling number of people are casually unmasked, with women being unmasked almost as frequently as men. These are some of the things I've noticed over two weeks of walking.

Going off-script is a thing, as it was in 2017, back when I knew so little about committed distance walking. Naver has often led me one way while the Gukto Jongju sign arrows have pointed another, and yet I somehow always end up back on the Gukto Jongju. (As I've written on previous walk blogs, think of it more as a network of paths than as a single connect-the-dots thing.) And while I've scheduled myself for certain motels or pensions according to the limited information I gleaned via Naver Map when doing my initial research, I find that I'm often making last-minute changes once I see what the true situation is like on the ground. Today, for example, I was scheduled to stay at View Pension, but once I arrived at my cert center, I saw a motel a few meters away (also named Full House, like the one from a few days ago), so I changed plans and went to the motel, which has good WiFi and decent facilities for only W40,000. And that's how we learn things, kiddies. Research can sometimes take you only so far.

But now the time has come for pictures, so here's the slide show for the day. Enjoy another slew of images.

PHOTO ESSAY

As mentioned previously, the camera tends to brighten things; the ambience was actually darker, at 5:40 a.m., then what you see above.

passing the Weolsong-jeong shrine again

It's getting close to sunrise, which is at 6:17 a.m.

The sun has fully cleared the horizon in this shot, so I stopped gawking and took the pic. I barely made it past some trees to see the sun.

If the sun doesn't look fully out, that's because it's an effect of the camera.

vaguely phallic

ditto

one of many sleepy seaside villages

chilis, covered

many of these barriers are essentially super-long murals

something about Uljin being an eco-minded city

outboard motors in a row

If I ever move back to the States and have a say in the architecture of my home, I want a house in the Korean style, with outside stairs that lead up to a usable, functional roof.

reminders of crabs

the chilis are definitely out in force

more mystery fish

Due to the virus, this shwimteo cannot be used for shweeming. Sad!

car tucked away

The Konglish word supeo or shyupeo is short for "supermarket" but usually applies to Mom-and-Pop convenience stores. The pronunciation of the word depends on its spelling. Supeo (수퍼) is based more on American English; shyupeo (슈퍼) is based on the tendency of some Brits to add a "y" sound to words with only "u"s in them, such as when they pronounce "stupid" as "styoopid." This isn't all Brits, of course—just some. And Americans add the "y" to plenty of "u" words as well, such as "unit," "universe," "useless," and "uniform." This US/UK-based variation in spelling happens with other Konglish terms as well, such as "news," which I've seen hangeulized as both 누우스 and 뉴스.

just add water

so not anatomically correct octopus

We'll come back to this in a second.

I saw this awesome crab sculpture and immediately got a strident "Where is your god now?" vibe from it.

so puny compared to the crab

little one just chilling

de profundis

the sun made this a bad angle at which to shoot

squash

must be headed in the right direction

one of those corny photo-op spots

A long boardwalk awaits the hiker.

spiders were everywhere, but this was nothing

end of the boardwalk

glove, probably cared for

same

caught this dog between yips

deeper, growlier yips from this one

I wanted to go up the Skywalk and become a Skywalker, but the spiral steps you see above were closed off. To go up to the Skywalk, I'd have had to double back, and I didn't want to do that. Opportunity, missed.

photographer photographs photographer

I told you this region is famous for crabs and squid.

some sort of avalanche-slowing net?

colors

a whole community of spiders

a veritable riot of color

downtown Hupo, still no pharmacy

Superman with shades, dealing with super crab lice

See the light bulbs hanging off the ship? That's one of the squid boats.

another squid boat

gaudy pink church

I normally don't photograph people that much, but I couldn't pass this up.

I saw this stage from afar and had to explore it.

"Coffee Hole" doesn't sound that appetizing. Would you drink something warm that comes out of a barista's coffee hole?

"Let's live right," admonishes the stone. This sort of stone is found all over, as you'll see.

Flags are out... maybe for the upcoming holiday of Hangeul Day?

dawg chewin' away

"Happiness," or "Heh, penis"?

life's drama

splash and crash

I was walking toward a construction site with a huge crane that I couldn't ignore.

looking back

little arf

chikkinz

Are these supposed to be crabs drying in the sun? Kinda gross if so.

The regular path suddenly ended and temporarily became a stony path for a few meters.

See what I mean? These "Let's live right" stones are all over the place.

zoomed in on this boat

Amurrican-style orb-weaver

a crime against gloves!

I'm veering right.

up a gentle hill

chilis on a hill

creepy sign beckons you to an unseen pension

If I'm not mistaken, that's yu meaning "to exist," so Yu Geum Sa could mean "exist-gold-temple." Maybe it's like, "There are treasures stored up for you in heaven."

Gyeongju, about four days away.

a pair of gloves for once

a rest stop I didn't visit

nets that reeked of rotting seaweed

how to weigh down your roof

another yipper

I took several shots.

un tournesol

when you don't have tires to weigh down your roof

lunch of bibimbap, eaten about 2.5 km from my destination

saw these two buddies walking north (they said hey) and thought of JW and my buddy Mike, who wants to walk the final 100 km of the Camino de Santiago's French Way with me

so many hotels, motels, and pensions along the way

and abandoned boats

here's your tossed-away mask for the day

"Mer Scent" might make more sense in Korean as "바다향," but using French to denote "sea" and the English for "scent" doesn't make much sense to me.

doesn't look very comfortable

"Dragon Head Park," says the sign on the left

shwimteo out the ass

This dolphin's tail seems way too long.

but it's a nice statue/sculpture

and the cert center is right next to it

journey's end

sculpture across the way

my motel

You know you're getting old when you start wearing an ascot. (The bandanna served as my mask whenever I entered convenience stores or talked with motel managers.)

friendly lady works here

the pension I could've stayed at

my room